Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2013 - Page 8

THE AGENDA
All Aboard!
By Olavi Louko
The writer is Deputy Mayor of the City of Espoo
Photo: City of Espoo / Markku Ojala, Compic
Espoo is recognised as a prosperous, dynamic city with world-class ICT
muscle. Celebrating her 555th birthday this year, Espoo is also home to
”innovation university” Aalto. The coming metro connection will take
Espoo to the next level.
E
spoo is the second biggest city in Finland, with 255,000 inhabitants. It is the
western neighbour of Helsinki and an
integral part of the Greater Helsinki Metropolitan Region which is formed by 14 municipalities. The distance to downtown Helsinki is about 10-20 kilometres, and the Helsinki International Airport is 25 kilometres
away.
Espoo is a community by the sea, with
50 kilometres of shoreline and over 100 islands. In addition, Espoo has plenty of great
lakes and untamed nature; for example, in
the north, you’ll find a spectacular national park.
With regards to urban structure, we
have five city centres located along railway
tracks and main roads. Over the period of 60
years, the size of Espoo has grown ten-fold.
This growth continues at a rate of 4,000 new
inhabitants every year. Out of this number,
half comes from organic population growth
and the rest comes from international residents moving into Espoo.
Even with all the development that has
been going on in Espoo over the years, it is
important to note that there are still plenty of
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opportunities to solidify the urban structure.
The metro is the real game-changer here: as
there will be 14 more kilometres of metroline stretching from Helsinki to Espoo, six
new metro stations will be launched in Espoo.
The metro will start operations at the
end of 2015 and it is likely that it will be extended by another 10 kilometres – and five
stations – by 2018.
Metro will increase the land value and
attract a lot of commercial, office and residential construction. During the next ten
years, one can expect to see investments to
the tune of almost 10 billion euros along the
metroline. This will have a positive impact
on tax revenue, boosting the quality of life
for Espoo’s residents.
Along the tracks, we find some of the
most notable areas in Finland. Keilaniemi is
a hi-tech hub which features the headquarters of Nokia, Kone, Microsoft and Fortum.
There is still room in this corporate neighbourhood for newcomers, too.
Next to Keilaniemi, there is Aalto University – named after the famous architect
Alv